Israel's first mission to the Moon has experienced a brief glitch on its way to the Earth's satellite but is now fully operational, the nonprofit behind the launch said Tuesday
TEL AVIV (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 27th February, 2019) Israel's first mission to the Moon has experienced a brief glitch on its way to the Earth's satellite but is now fully operational, the nonprofit behind the launch said Tuesday.The lander Beresheet, which means Genesis in Hebrew, blasted off into space last week atop SpaceX's Falcon rocket, separated and fired its main engine, in what was its first successful maneuver.
"During a [second] pre-maneuver phase of Beresheet, the spacecraft computer reset unexpectedly, and it was automatically canceled. The engineering teams are analyzing the situation. At this time, the spacecraft's systems are working well," SpaceIL tweeted.
The spacecraft is set to land on the Moon in April. It will fire its engines to hop to a new location where it will shoot images of the lunar surface and measure the magnetic field.
The mission is a privately-funded initiative launched in response to the now canceled Google Lunar X prize challenge. If successful, Israel will become the fourth nation to land a spacecraft on the Moon after Russia, the United States and China.
